Renee Collins remembers how tough it was to find activities for her children when they were younger. As toddlers, they were too young for T-ball and most other organized sports. Now that her kids are 5 and 8 years old, it’s much easier to find activities to keep them busy.

But when the Vancouver mom learned about a running event fit for toddlers through tweens, she was intrigued. Collins’ niece and nephew, who live in Cottage Grove, Minn., were running weekly races with age-appropriate distances. They were getting T-shirts and goodie bags and competing for points in their age brackets.

The event was offered by Healthy Kids Running Series — a nonprofit taking aim at increasing rates of childhood obesity through five-week running series. The organization, founded in West Chester, Pa., in 2009, is now hosting events in 200 communities across the country.

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